November 11, 2012

Mr. Putin: Denounce This Vile Russian Hoax

There is a new tourist attraction in Moscow.  The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center opened a few days ago.  It cost 50 million dollars to build, with the funds mostly coming from Russian oligarchs.  Israeli President Simon Peres atten...

August 29, 2012

Will Mitt Seize His Moment?

Hurricane Isaac notwithstanding, the 2012 Republican National Convention, like most in recent memory, has been orchestrated to somehow give a foregone conclusion a hint of drama.  It can be a tough sell.  But the world will be watching this...

April 24, 2011

The Easter Effect

Today, people around the globe gather to remember, honor, and reflect on events that happened some two thousand years ago in a micro-spot on the world map.  It is a good time to take a break from the relentless and, at times, tedious debate abou...

March 27, 2011

The Triangle Fire And Public Employee Unions

By all accounts, it was a moment as pivotal as it was tragic.  On March 25, 1911, approximately five hundred workers were crafting "shirtwaists" (blouses with puffy sleeves and tight waists).  These garments, worn by "Gibson ...

January 9, 2011

Progressives and the 'Bad Stuff' in the Constitution

It is hard to actually believe that something as prototypically American as a public reading of the U.S. Constitution by people recently sworn to uphold it could be at all controversial.  For that matter, it is even harder to believe that such a...

December 25, 2010

A Christmas Carol from Paul

Christmas is more than a day in December -- it is a season.  Reminders of this are all around us -- the weather, the gatherings, the music on the radio.  It is not unusual for savvy media outlets to saturate their formats with all things Yu...

December 19, 2010

Thatcher, Reagan, and Those Revolting British Students

The images of violent protests in London coming in from across the pond are disturbing to most Americans.  But if some are tempted to find comfort in the idea that what is going on over there could never happen here, they should think again. At ...

December 5, 2010

Overheard -- and Overlooked -- at the Sorbonne

On April 23, 1910, recent ex-President Theodore Roosevelt spoke to a massive audience at the University of Paris (the Sorbonne). The crowd included academicians, "ministers in court dress, army and navy officers in full uniform, nine hundred stu...

November 25, 2010

The Thanksgiving Rabbi -- 1789

Gershom Mendes Seixas has been called "American Judaism's first public figure." He was appointed in 1768 chazzan of New York's Congregation Shearith Israel -- the only synagogue serving the city's approximately three hundred Jewish resident...

November 8, 2010

Beyond Indignation

Americans are angry. There is restlessness across the land, the kind that fuels turbulence in the body politic. The seismic electoral shift in evidence last Tuesday was, among other things, a resounding expression of voter ire. Likely some of those t...